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May 14, 2005
Ocotillo Action Group: Reusable Learning Objects 2004/2005 Year-End Report
Submitted by: Donna Rebadow and Lisa C. Young, Action Group Co-chairs
During the fall 2004 semester, we developed a mission and goals for the academic year and raised awareness of Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) around the District .
During the spring 2005 semester, we continued to work on accomplishing out goals, including defining RLOs for the District, and holding events and learnshops to aid faculty and staff in the use and creation of RLOs.
This report is intended to document these events. Additionally, this report provides a status of our progress and details our plans for the 2005/2006 school year.
RLO Roadshow
Throughout the school year, we intended to raise the awareness of faculty and staff throughout the District with regard to RLOs. This was done through our RLO Roadshows. Faculty and staff were invited by the Directors of the campus Center for Teaching and Learning to attend a 1-hour informational event to learn what Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) are, where they can be found, to see examples of them and learn how they can be used to enhance classes.
These RLO Roadshows were held as follows:
GWCC October 26
SCC November 15
CGCC November 18
SMCC November 23
MCC November 30
EMCC December 8
PVCC January 11
Our agenda included:
1. Explained what RLOs are
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2. Showed examples of RLOs
Wisconsin online: Cubes and Bricks Perception RLO (granular example)
Wesleyan University: Virtual Instrument Museum (modular example)
Audience specific examples were shown based on disciplines
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3. Demonstrated, compared and contrasted the use of RLO repositories:
Merlot
Issues:
o Copyright
o Intellectual Property
o Ways to contact developer
o Cost
o Longevity and stability
Audience specific directory and keyword searches were conducted.
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4. Discussed ways RLOs can be used
Granular and Modular
Across Discipline
Across Grade level
Examples
Course recreation using RLOs after content loss
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Savvy Cyber Prof
An unexpected opportunity became available this Fall in the form of participation in a PT3 grant with Ray Ostos and Michael Lang of the National Center for Teacher Education at MCCD. The project entails the co-chairs Beta-testing the Savvy Cyber Professor tutorial for development of Real World Learning Objects (RWLOs). It is the intention that after Beta-testing, the RLO Action Group will use this curriculum for a hands-on workshop for full-time and adjunct faculty that we have termed as a LearnShop.
The beta-testing of this project resulted in some major revisions of the Savvy Cyber Professor. During the summer, we will be reviewing the revised program and evaluate whether it is a curriculum that we can use to educate faculty in creating and using RWLOs.
Our intent for the spring semester was to shift from raising awareness to providing LearnShops and Dialogue Days to make RLOs real for faculty and staff. All of these events were pre-approved for faculty professional growth.
RLO101: Introduction to Reusable Learning Objects
An online Learnshop was kicked off on February 1. In this learnshop, participants were able to learn how to find, evaluate and integrate existing RLOS into their courses. The course started out with 23 participants. Participation has been inconsistent and the online learnshop will be revised for the fall 2005 semester.
Reusable Learning Objects Dialogue Day:
Learning Objects, Wikis, and Other Strange things
On April 1, a Dialogue Day was held at Glendale Community College, featuring Brian Lamb from the University of British Columbia. Participants learned about RLOs, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and photo repositories in an interactive, hands-on manner.
Creating Your Very Own RLO
On April 2, a one-day hands-on LearnShop was held to provide faculty and staff with the skills needed to create their own RLO, using SoftChalk LessonBuilder. The Learnshop, held on a Saturday, had 14 participants attend.
"Technology, Colleges and Community" (TCC) Worldwide Online Conference
On Thursday, April 21st, we presented "Reuseable Learning Objects: How They Can Enhance Online Learning" during the TCC Worldwide Online Conference. Seven colleagues took part during a one hour synchronous online chat with access to our online presentation.
Ocotillo Retreat 2005 "Lost in Technology? Charting Your Way"
May 17, 2005, South Mountain Community College
We had a PowerPoint Open Demo in the South Mountain Computing Commons that ran from 10:15 - 11:45 in the morning and 1:00 - 2:30 in the afternoon. The title of our presentation was: "Reusable Learning Objects: How they can enhance online learning."
Other Goals Met:
The co-chairs met often throughout the year to plan, develop and evaluate activities and events based on our mission and goals.
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Other Items
We improved our blogging efforts by posting at least once a week. We implemented the repository of the week to build awareness of repositories and their features. We included comments from colleagues whose conference presentations we attended and then blogged (Eli Collins-Brown from Illinois State University and Elspeth McCulloch of Brevard Community College).
We used the discussion board to have a guest speaker, Scott Leslie, converse with faculty and staff. Attendance was small.
A definition of RLOs for MCCCD was developed.
o At Maricopa, we have defined RLOs as discrete pieces of content that are electronic, interactive and include a form of assessment that relates the material to an educational goal. There is a flexibility inherent to the use/reuse of RLOs in that although they may have been created for one content area they may be appropriate and effective in many academic disciplines.
We are using the blog for the majority of our communication with the District community and therefore will no longer write a white paper.
We attended and blogged the following conferences:
o League for Innovations: CIT conference November 2004
o League for Innovations: Innovations conference March 2005
o Teaching, Colleges, Community (TCC) 2005 Online conference April 2005 (presented)
We were invited to speak at other MCCCD events on RLOs
o Online Learning Group
o SCC Blackboard Users Group
We are planning to attend the following conferences:
o NMC conference - June 2005
o League for Innovations: CIT conference October 2005 (presenting on RLOs)
o League for Innovations: Innovations conference March 2006 (planning to present a workshop on RLOs)
We are planning another Creating Your Own RLO workshop:
o Gateway Community College - June 6, 2005
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Co-Chair +/Delta Evaluation
During the Fall 2004 semester, the co-chairs conducted several evaluations of the events based on the feedback and questions received from participants to improve subsequent activities. Additionally, the following +/delta evaluation is based on the accomplishment of our mission and goals to date.
Plus:
+ Accomplished goal of raising awareness
+ Paved the way for hands-on activities
+ Very engaged participants
+ Small groups
+ Technology
+ Personal to specific disciplines
+ Handout
+ Examples
+ Great team
+ Showed "Ocotillo Central"
+ Email advertisement
+ Future events
+ Kept improving after each Roadshow based on feedback and +/delta
+ Cleaned up blog
+ Blogged activities
+ Planned/Developed activities for Spring based on needs of participants
+ Locations of roadshows (6 of 10 colleges)
+ Personal experiences with RLOs
+ Used time available effectively
+ District support for scheduling, evaluations and sign-in sheets
+ Cooperation and support among Ocotillo group (District, chair and co-chair support)
+ Brought awareness to MLX
Delta
∆ More faculty (Communicated with 51 faculty/staff at 6 Colleges would have liked more attendance)
∆ Technology at MCC
∆ Schedule changes for future events
∆ Wiki spam
∆ Did not use discussion board to full extent
∆ Used BLOG more often
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Other Items
We plan to pursue FPG for Learnshops and Dialogue Day
Continue and improve blogging efforts
Utilize discussion boards for:
o Existing RLO repositories
o Existing issues (metadata, SCORM, copyright, intellectual property)
Define RLOs for MCCD
We are using the blog for the majority of our communication with the District community and therefore will no longer write a white paper.
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Posted by drebadow at May 14, 2005 04:59 PM in category
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